Are the Benefits of Television Really Beneficial?

Steven Johnson stated how the quality of modern popular entertainment is improving and how it can actually help improve our cognitive abilities. He said that television shows nowadays are more challenging to understand compared to before because of its "multi-thread" component. Since there are many different plots being acted out, the audience have to be patient, watch carefully, and to think more in order to fully understand the whole story. 

Even though the plots of movies and television series is becoming more complicated, but it does not mean that this is benefiting the audiences; there are still plenty of low-quality productions out there in the market. People who choose to watch these type of complicated productions are probably the people who are already average or above average in their intellectual abilities. Think about this, people would not watch something that they will not understand. If they watch an episode of Sopranos for example, and they do not understand it, they would not bother going on with the series. They would choose to watch something like Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The Kardashians series on the other hand, is more like reality TV, and it provides nothing beneficial whatsoever to their viewers

Television programs are just mere reflections of what people want you to think. They misguide viewers in every aspect of life; they help to create and reinforce social norms that are not necessarily beneficial. For example, every single protagonist in movies or television series are physically well built and unrealistically attractive. When people walk on the streets, they do not see Jessica Alba or Jennifer Lawrence at the corner of every street, yet people all aim to become like them; A lot of teenagers are trying to become like an Oscar winning actress or actor, sometimes at the expense of their health. 

Watching television is highly addictive. The time used for watching television could have been used on something more productive and educational. When a person starts off an episode of a series, they would not be able to stop until they finish it. Meanwhile the time spent on watching it could be used for studying and preparing for exams so that they can earn a higher GPA, which is way more important for their future endeavors. Even though television is getting more and more sophisticated, but these types of knowledge and developing the ability to think, which is one of the main advantages that Johnson has stated, can be achieved through education. All undergraduate students know that what they have learnt in their program cannot really be applied to a real life situation unless they are taking accounting, engineering or some specialized skills. Take economics for example, perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly does not really exist in real life. What students are trying to get out of their four years of education is not how to think, intellectual skills, and improving on their cognitive abilities. If television does provide us that education, there is no point for students to spend four years and thousands of dollars on their university education. 

Above are some points that could be used in argument against Johnson. Even though there are some great movies produced like the Life of Pi, which are comparatively challenging to understand, movies and TV series are not as beneficial as how Johnson said it. He was exaggerating the benefits of media.